There's No Place Like a Cozy Home

Andrew Tuck, the editor of global business, design, and culture magazine Monocle, gives us a quick tour through some of the coziest homes from Mumbai, India, to Chiba, Japan.

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1

A through draft, a whirring fan, and stone walls combine in this Bijoy Jain-designed house just outside Mumbai to create a home that's cool and breezy. It's easy to get dependent on cranking up the air conditioning but here a clever series of shutters provides the heat-relief you need.

2

Overly neat houses can be a turn off. You feel that no life could really unfold in them. But this home in Hamburg, which belongs to stylist Wolfram Neugebauer, marries pureness with humanity. Perhaps it's the piles of books that reveal it, but this is a place for calm and pleasure.

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3

The British architect William Smalley designed this small mews house in London and used a series of moveable shutters to filter light and privacy on the façade. And inside he used wood for a fulsome cosy impact—without turning the place into a faux ski lodge.

4

This is perfection. It was created in 1961 in Paris for Charles Vienne, a Swiss engineer. Today it's still in the family and lived in by his daughter. The space is super compact but they did everything right the first time, so the design is essentially unchanged. We talk about living in smaller spaces a lot—here's how you do it.

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5

Another house that has stood the test of time. It's in Cape Town and its architect Gabriel Fagan and his wife Gwen have been here since the 1960s. In a world where people talk about property, they talked about making a home.

6

This Swiss house is what's called a stöckli; a home made for a farmer when he retires and hands over the work to his children. But architect Flammer has rethought tradition to make a residence that's small, richly lit, and good for children to play in.

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7

Architecture photographer Shinichi Ito has a laid-back sensibility and has created this refuge in Chiba, Japan. And it's what a house should be: a place to escape; to be yourself. And to play another record.

8

Andreas Martin-Löf lead the makeover of this former hat factory in Stockholm. In a time of bland apartment buildings, and a narrow definition of luxury, I like how he has kept the building's patina. And he must be pleased, too—he bought a space here for himself.

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9

OK, you're thinking of having a living wall or a green roof, but this seems more like commitment to habitat that's needed. I like some Brutalism as seen here in the Halen estate in Bern. And when it comes with a shaggy top it's even better.

10

Just outside Barcelona, Walden 7 was designed by Ricardo Bofill and while it may seem other worldly, it does something we should all value. It brings people together. The people who live here are proud of the project and function as a proper community.